A method of making electrical contacts from continuous strips has been known heretofore. In this method, one or two uniform strips of contact material are brazed near the edges of a strip of base material. Contacts are then chopped off this subassembly in a die. The greatest advantage of this method is that the attachment process is generally an unattended, continuous, automated operation and thus is more economical than handling and welding or resistance brazing discrete contacts. However, a disadvantage of this method is that it has been limited to making rectangular or square contacts, and, as a result, more silver is used than is necessary for the required performance. For example, the difference between a square contact and a round contact of the same diameter as the length of one side of the square contact is almost 22 percent in silver volume. That is, going from a square contact to a round contact of the same thickness and the above diameter results in a saving of almost 22 percent in the amount of silver. But round contacts have had the disadvantage that they are discrete contacts that require individual handling, thus requiring more complex and costly manufacturing methods.
While these prior methods have been useful for their intended purpose, this invention relates to improvements thereover.